Hindus believe that as creation began, the divine, all-encompassing consciousness took the form of the first and original vibration manifesting as sound “AUM”. Before creation began it was “Shunyākāsha”, the emptiness or the void. Shunyākāsha, meaning literally “no sky”, is more than nothingness, because everything then existed in a latent state of potentiality. The vibration of “AUM” symbolizes the manifestation of God in form. “AUM” is the reflection of the absolute reality, it is said to be without beginning or the end and embracing all that exists.